THE POISON GARDEN website

Pontifications on Poison

Being some ramblings on events associated with poisonous plants.

Saturday 24th December 2011

Reports in the press that one of the UK’s leading visitor
attraction had been selling ‘ethnic’ jewellery made of highly
toxic seeds raised two questions; how on earth did these
products get onto the gift shop shelves and are these seeds as
dangerous as the press reports state?

The Eden Project says it has been stocking the item for up to
two years and it has sold 2,800 of them. The bracelet is made of
seeds of
Abrus precatorius, a tropical vine with a number of
common names the most often used of which are jequirity bean and
rosary pea.

The bracelets, made in Peru, were purchased from Rainstick
Trading, a company in Suffolk. There is nothing exactly matching
the picture of the bracelet used in the news reporting on the
company’s website at the moment and there is no reason to
believe the company knew what the bracelets contained. There is
a
‘Natural seed bracelet’ made up of a number of
different coloured seeds some of which match the red of the
rosary pea but that does not mean that there are Arbus seeds.

Abrus precatorius contains the toxic lectin, or toxalbumin,
abrin, and much of the reporting points out that abrin is
similar in structure to ricin the toxin in Ricinus communis.
None of it mentions that this means it is also similar to
insulin.

But, to turn to the first of my two questions. How does it
come about that the Eden Project and, it is believed, a number
of other retailers in the UK had this bracelet for sale?
Perhaps, nobody realised that these seeds could be harmful. A
quick look at my four ‘go to’ books suggests this is highly
unlikely.

The International Poisonous Plants Checklist cites twenty
references to it and the first in the list is a 1955 paper J.N.
Ransohoff entitled ‘Abrin, Lethal Jewelry’. Wink and Van Wyk, in
‘Mind-altering and Poisonous Plants of the World’ say ‘Abrus
seeds are widely used as beads in necklaces, toys, musical
instruments, masks and decorations’. They go on to say that
dermatitis as a result of wearing the seeds in jewellery is
known to occur. Elizabeth Dauncey, in 'Poisonous
Plants: a guide for parents and childcare providers' says
‘the distinctive seeds are imported in jewellery, rosaries and
musical instruments (e.g. inside maracas)’ and Amy Stewart, in
‘Wicked Plants’ says they are ‘popular beads for jewelry
making’.

And just as all papers about ricin refer in the introduction
to its alleged potential as a bioweapon so, it seems, all papers
about abrin include in the introduction that the seeds are often
used in jewellery and beadwork.

So, it is rather hard to understand how someone buying
products for the Eden Project gift shop (and for that matter the
buyer at the importing company as there is no reason to believe
it was aware of the type of seeds being used) could not know
that some bead products are made with toxic seeds and,
therefore, checks should be made on the seeds being used in any
such product. It seems this matter only came to light when one
of the venue’s horticulturists saw the bracelets in the shop.
Efforts are now being made to recall the 2,800 bracelets that
have been sold.

What seems like extremely ill-advised purchasing may,
however, have another explanation. It could be that the importer
and the buyer felt that the harmful reputation of rosary pea is
overstated, which brings us to my second question; are these
seeds as dangerous as the press reports state?

Like many seeds, for example Taxus baccata, yew, the seeds of
Abrus precatorius have an indigestible coating and there are
reports of them passing through the digestive system without
causing any symptoms. It seems that it is necessary to chew the
seeds for the toxin to be released. ‘Wicked Plants’, for example
says that ‘a single seed, chewed well, would kill a person.
Though Ms Stewart has a tendency to overstate the actual harm
caused by poisonous plants in this case she seems to be followed
the accepted wisdom because Wink and Van Wyk say the same thing
with the caveat that this is especially the case with children.

Dauncey, however, notes that there are very few reported
cases and I found
one paper detailing the case of an intended suicide who had
thoroughly crushed ten seeds and ingested the powder before
thinking better of it and seeking medical care. The subject, a
27-year old male, suffered severe gastrointestinal symptoms but
was fit for release from the emergency department after eight
hours and a follow-up, a month later, showed no long-term
effects.

The AAPCC NPDS annual report that I’ve written about and am
still studying for further information has no reference at all
the plant or to abrin. The plant sub-category ‘Toxalbumins’ only
has 167 single exposures recorded against it with none having a
‘Major’ outcome and only five producing a ‘moderate’ outcome. I
also checked back with previous NPDS reports since 2004 and
found no specific mentions of the plant or the toxin and the
sub-category figures for ‘Toxalbumins’ show that 2010 was a
typical year.

The Eden Project product recall pageincludes information from the Health Protection
Agency 'seeds are not expected to cause serious problems if
swallowed whole and not chewed' and notes that, even if crushed
or chewed the toxin needs to be 'fully absorbed' for any
potentially fatal poisoning to occur.

So, it does seem that, as so often happens, there is a wide
difference between the potential for harm from the abrin in
rosary pea seeds and the actual harm caused both in terms of
number of incidents and severity.

That is not to say that I think it is OK for these bracelets
to be on sale. The whole point about avoiding harm from
poisonous plants is to know what the potential is and deal with
it sensibly. Buying a bracelet on the assumption that it would
not be sold if there were any level of risk means you do not
have the knowledge to make a reasoned evaluation.

The only people who would not be surprised to find Abrus
precatorius seeds on sale in the Eden Project gift shop would be
visitors from Germany. (The German word for poison is gift. I’ve
waited years to use that joke. I probably should have waited
longer.)

Actually, there is a better joke about this incident. The
Daily Mail says in its headline that the beans are 'twice as
toxic as RICIN'. Given that the Mail has previously reported
that 'even a speck of [ricin] can kill someone' that must mean
that half a speck of abrin would do the job.